With more and more evidence that the impacts of climate change are disrupting human and natural systems more quickly than suggested by early predictions, it has become clear that in addition to maintaining efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions (“mitigation”), our society must develop strategies for adapting to those impacts of climate disruption that are now unavoidable (“adaptation”).

To date there has not been a concerted, collective effort to evaluate the role of the higher education sector in climate adaptation. Colleges and universities are often major institutions in their communities and have the potential to serve as climate adaptation hubs, developing the teaching, research, knowledge and skills needed to create resilient communities that will be able to thrive in an uncertain climate. In this way, addressing climate adaptation opens up significant opportunities for colleges and universities, including:

Engage with their local communities and strengthen positive “town-gown” relationships

Evaluate and address the direct risks to their operations, infrastructure and supply chains that climate disruption pose

Serve as impartial, credible, legitimate sources of information about climate disruption (without the real or perceived economic or political motivations that corporations or politicians may bring to the issue)

The higher education sector has taken the lead on climate change mitigation, as evidenced through the more than 650 institutions that have signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), pledging to reduce, and eventually eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in their operations and provide the education, research and community engagement to enable the rest of society to do the same.

There is now a need and opportunity to work with ACUPCC institutions and other colleges and universities, as well as representatives from other sectors, to evaluate higher education’s role in adapting to climate disruption in ways that support and reinforce these necessary mitigation efforts.

Second Nature will convene a Higher Education Climate Change Adaptation Committee to evaluate higher education’s role in climate adaptation. The Committee will be made up of 6-12 experts and leading thinkers on adaptation and/or higher education.

Second Nature will coordinate a series of conference calls of the Committee, and an in-person meeting at the ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit at George Washington University in Washington DC, on June 24, 2011. Through this process, the group will develop and publish a White Paper (PDF) that identifies the trends, challenges and opportunities associated with higher education’s role in climate adaptation; captures the conclusions of the evaluation; provides examples of activities and best practices currently taking place on college and university campuses in the areas of education, research, operations and community engagement; and determines next steps for these efforts.

The Committee will determine the areas of focus for this process and the resulting White Paper (PDF) based on their expertise and experience. Some initial areas of focus that will explored include:

Review of the major climate adaptation research efforts currently underway at colleges and universities

Review of existing efforts by colleges and universities to adapt to climate disruption

Successful activities that serve as both climate mitigation and climate adaptation strategies

Special focus on minority-serving institutions and communities of color that often have fewer resources and are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate disruption

Evaluation of the broad categories of risks that climate change poses to colleges and universities (in campus operations and infrastructure, prices and availability of goods and services in the supply chain, food supply, transportation costs, etc.)

Role colleges and universities as ‘climate adaptation hubs’ for their local communities — developing and showcasing solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create more resilient communities

For more information, contact:

Higher Education’s Role in Adapting to a Changing Climate

Released in November 2011, this report evaluates how colleges and universities are preparing society for a changing climate through their education, research, operations, and community engagement activities. The report was developed by the Higher Education Climate Adaptation Committee, a group of thirteen leaders in higher education and experts in climate adaptation, convened by the ACUPCC in March 2011.

Prompt and decisive action to stop climate change is nothing less than the Great Work of our time.